ANANTHA SHENOY K forwards a forward attributed to “Ninth Dimension” that has been doing the rounds for a couple of months but still must be read.

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The body of Major Manish Pitambare, who was shot dead at Anantnag, was cremated with full military honours at Thane on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, a news swept across all the news channels: ‘Sanjay Dutt relieved by the court’, ‘Sirf Munna not a Bhai’ ’13 saal ka vanvaas khatam‘, ‘although found guilty for possession of arms, Sanjay can breathe a sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn’.

And then many experts like Salman Khan said, “He is a good person. We knew he will come out clean.”

Big B: “Dutt family and our family have relations for years he’s a good kid. He is like elder brother to Abhishek.”

His sister Priya Datt said, ‘we can sleep well tonight. it’s a great relief.’

In other news, Parliament was mad at the Indian cricket team for performing badly; Greg Chapell said something; Bomb scare on Gorakhpur Express; Shah Rukh Khan replaces Big B in KBC; and Sonia asked PM to consider reducing petroleum prices.

But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay Dutt’s “Phoenix-like” comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges.

Surfing through the channels, one news item on BBC startled me. It read, “Hizbul Mujahidin’s most wanted terrorist ‘Sohel Faisal‘ killed in Anantnag. Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in the process. Four others are injured.”

It was past midnight. I started visiting the foolish Indian channels, the ones who are ‘Sabse TEZ’, but Sanjubaba was still ruling. They were saying how Sanjubaba pleaded to the court saying ‘I am the sole bread earner for my family’, ‘I have a daughter who is studying in US. Who will look after her?’ And then they showed how Sanjubaba was not wearing his lucky blue shirt while he was hearing the verdict. Also how he went to every temple and prayed for last some months. A suspect in the Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under arms act, was being made into a hero.

Sure Sanjubaba has a daughter; sure Sanjubaba did not do any terrorist thing as in bombing some place or hijacking an airplane, etc. Sure Sanjubaba went to all the temples; Sure he did a lot of Gandhigiri but then…

Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about the terrorists’ whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp, killed the Hizbul mujahidin’s supremo and in the process lost his life to the bullets fired from an AK47.

He has a wife and a daughter (just like Sanjubaba). Age? 18 months. Major Manish never said ‘I have a daughter’ before he took the decision to attack the terrorist hide out in the darkest of nights?

He never thought about his having a family and being the bread winner of the family.

No news channel covered this since they were too busy hype-ing a former drug addict, an actor in real and reel life, a suspect who’s linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds.

Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so successful that his conviction in possession of arms had no meaning. They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud of him.

The parents of Major Pitambare are still on this earth and they have to live rest of their lives without their beloved son. His daughter won’t ever see her papa again.

Major Pitambare, Sir, to my generation there is no greater hero than one who laid his life in the name of this great nation. Hence Sir, I salute you. You are the real Star, Vande mataram.

15 comments

Going by the current standards, our news channels will definitely bury these acts of valor as long as they have some “saleable” news. To expect ‘Sabse TEZ’ news channels to telecast about the sacrifice of Major Manish H Pitambare would be a criminal offense. And I think, people like Major Manish H Pitambare, cared only for their duty and they never asked for any publicity and never got it either. But people like Sanjay Dutt get publicity even if they don’t ask for. Perhaps, it would do good if actors reserve there dialogues only for movies as you cannot expect news channels to exercise restraint. All those who know about Major Manish, will also know that he is the real hero and all those who think that Sanjay Dutt is a hero surely need to know that he just escaped conviction and nothing else.

god, i can’t believe that news channels air more of film material than any other things. it’s lame even to think about it, like rai went to benares with the bachchans? lo, breaking news is that rai got ‘hurt’ while shooting for guru at hampi, atleast the heritage site is in the news due to rai. like one cares… humph!!!

when there are rumours of ash, small b wedding… or anything related to celebrities, these news channels have tonns of archives… for example, they showed the story of asihwarya rai right from miss world, first film, salman khaan, taal film, then vivek in olympics torch episode, then their break up… then with abhishek. Similarly, they have lot of archives for all anchors.

NDTV has already announced a entertainment channel with karan johar. I dont know if prannoy roy is going to transform ndtv 24×7 into ndtv entertainment.. because, he has already brought in a new anchor for the night out replacing aneesha beg. and lot of entertainment news these days.

It is very sad that the news channels gives the news which are not at all a news. In these unwanted exercise they leave behind the real heroes like Mj Pitambare. These foruth estate should behave responsibly which is not happening these channels instead have much interest in putting Big questions like Whether cricketers /cine actors should be exempted from Income tax!!!!! or Whether shilpa shetty should continue i n big brother or not blah blah!!!!

Irony is that people seriously take part in the polls and seriously watch news based on cine world or cricket

I am happy that some people are recognising real heroes thru the platforms like churmuri Thank u Mr Ananth Shenoy for this piece
And our heartfelt thanks to all those Jawans because of whom we live peacefully

Hi,
It looks like we indians have forgot the very meaning of humanity. We take all possessions and burned down issues of shilpa shetty in Big B. And conduct big riots for no way related saddam hussain death.. Fans spend so much money for keeping cutouts for Actors…And if sania mizra or tendulkar sneezes it becomes a big news and a title story…But heroes like Major Manish goes unnoticed not just by the media but also by the public…

My salute to this great man.. He defenitely deserves a standing honour from every truthfull indian in the world..

What more can we expect from the media which is like a hungry dog chasing the bone. The Media in some cases has unearthed scams and also opened our eyes to incidents whihc were being hidden from the public by our beuracrats and politicians for the past several years.
However even the print media stinks. The front page of Times of India has more space for Shilpa Shetty in Big Brother than real life heroes.
Let us do some introspection on where we are headed in order that all faculties of indian society work in unison to rid this nation of hypocrisy,falsehood and synthetic progress.

Our salute to Major Manish Pitambare the unsung hero. Real Men are made of such stuff.

News channels in India have long lost their heads or else why would they encourage poor people to drop their children into deep dug holes to get rich and known overnight!!! They are completely out of their wits.

It’s sad that the media has lost it. And that you can’t change the way the “sell” their news.
I believe that there are more Indians than not who would want to salute greats like Major Pitambare instead of going for the Paparazzis’ stuff.
I also agree that the newspapers aren’t doing a good job either.
The least we can do is to spread the word around whenever such a mishap happens. I feel betrayed (and in fact guilty) on having got this news so late… Nevertheless I admire this website for raising this crucial blog.

This way we can not only raise our consciousness level but also be prouder Indians.

Its evident that the news channels have lost the integrity and credibility they once had. They have become synonymous to any downgrade entertainment channels dishing out spicy stories and providing fodder to the gossip mongers. They dont even shy away from showing the repeat telecast of ‘BIG BOSS’ at the cost of relevant issues and incidents which go unnoticed. I urge them not to lower thier standards and bring to fore the the significant issues.

First of all my Sincere Salute to “Major Manish H Pitambare” and ALL the soldiers and not only those who sacrifice their lifes. Each one of them is a HERO as they sacrifice EVERYTHING for serving our MOTHER LAND, and a few go one step ahead and even sacrifice even their lives.

NOW to screw INDIAN MEDIA, I think Indian Media suxxx big time, infact they are not journlists or news channels out there any more. they don’t fight for the reason they were created n i.e. US “the common man”. They are not the ones which will fight with “THE MAN” for masses rather now they are “THE MAN” maker. now MEDIA decides who will enter the parliament. they make and destroy goverments, they PLAY with the emotions of masses to increase their public rating and become THE BEST or SUBSE TEZ news channel.

I read somewhere that “the power of a pen is more then power of a sword”. Armed forces were created to save our Borders but Media was given the power of pen, and liberty to print anything and everything, power to reveal the truth, to protect us from internal threat. But i dnt have ne faith in it any more.

Although it sounds very filmy etc. but TRUST me ppl i think it is really a time for a real life “RANG DE BASANTI” i mean a tsunami of the anger which has been building inside all of us needs to come out all together. I think only then we can have a safe future.